Kevin Smith Suffers 'Massive Heart Attack'

Filmmaker Kevin Smith has tweeted that he suffered a "massive heart attack" while shooting a new standup special, Kevin Smith Live! at the Alex Theatre in Glendale Sunday night.

Smith had two shows scheduled and cancelled the second due to the illness.

Smith is an American filmmaker, actor, comic book writer, author, and podcaster. He came to prominence with the low-budget comedy film Clerks(1994), which he wrote, directed, co-produced, and acted in as the character Silent Bob of stoner duo Jay and Silent Bob. Jay and Silent Bob have appeared in Smith's follow-up films Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Clerks 2 which were set primarily in his home state of New Jersey. While not strictly sequential, the films frequently featured crossover plot elements, character references, and a shared canon described by fans as the "View Askewniverse", named after his production company View Askew Productions, which he co-founded with Scott Mosier.

Smith also directed and produced films such as the buddy copaction comedy Cop Out (2010), the horror film Red State (2011), and the horror comedy Tusk (2014), the first film in the True Northtrilogy.

Smith is the owner of Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, a comic book store in Red Bank, New Jersey that is the subject of the reality-television show Comic Book Men. He also hosts the movie-review television show Spoilers. As a podcaster, Smith co-hosts several shows on his own SModcast Podcast Network, including SModcast, Fatman on Batman, and the live show Hollywood Babble-On. Smith is well known for participating in long, humorous Q&A sessions that are often filmed for DVD release, beginning with An Evening with Kevin Smith